Social Interaction from Gaming

I spent the greater part of my life specializing in behavior management, in the mental health field. One thing I do know is humans crave social interaction. I worked with some very low functioning developmentally disabled folks, for a while, and noticed that when you hold your hand out, not to shake hands, because they don't grasp that concept, they still reach out to touch your hand. This is basic social interaction. We all need it.

However, I've seen a trend, in a lot of games, over the years, of less social interaction and more solo play/solo farming. We sit hours in front of our computers and isolate ourselves into a game that potentially can give you about all the social interaction you need, but we still alienate ourselves from other players, usually. Why is this? Shyness? Anxiety of meeting new people? Anti-social behavior?

This is where guilds come in handy. Guilds potentially provide that much needed social interaction we all so subconsciously are craving in the game(s) we play. I'm sorry, but if a game has sucky social interaction for me, I move on. POE has a decent guild system but it needs some tweaking. It's still a very nice platform from which to provide a pool of social activities for it's members and should promote as much of that social interaction that we so much need, as we deprive ourselves from receiving it in real life, because we're on our asses playing Fluffytheaxekiller.

Something to think about.

Edit in 6-11-14

I don't want to come off as bragging but rather would like to support why I posted this thread. Not only have I been doing behavior management in rl, but for the past 16 years, I've been playing around with those social interaction pools, in games, that we call clans and guilds. I see this awesome game and see the flawed guild system and just have to do something about it. In order to do that, one thing I feel I need to do is have a thread like this. I hope this explains things for you all better.

Play in parties
/thread

Why do games NEED social interaction? Games have historically been single player, and a lot of players (including myself) see a brief lack of social interaction as a good thing, a balance to a busy life outside of games. A life where we interact with a lot of people.

I "understand" where you are coming from. You are an extrovert. You crave / are addicted to social interactions. You don't understand introverts, so you generalize. If social games are what you want then by all means go for it. Doesn't mean everyone should think the same way as you.

Don't come in here assuming everyone needs as much social interaction as you do. Also, don't come in here assuming that those who need it less are somewhat abnormal. And in return we won't label you as a typical extrovert who knows NOTHING about how the other side works.

"

elitedesolator wrote:

Why do games NEED social interaction? Games have historically been single player, and a lot of players (including myself) see a brief lack of social interaction as a good thing, a balance to a busy life outside of games. A life where we interact with a lot of people.

I "understand" where you are coming from. You are an extrovert. You crave / are addicted to social interactions. You don't understand introverts, so you generalize. If social games are what you want then by all means go for it. Doesn't mean everything should think the same way as you.

Don't come in here assuming everyone needs as much social interaction as you do. Also, don't come in here assuming that those who need it less are somewhat abnormal. And in return we won't label you as a typical extrovert who knows NOTHING about how the other side works.

I understand how things work a whole lot more than you're giving me credit for. And yes, there are a few exceptions, such as yourself. I'm talking to the people who are looking for more social interaction in a game. BTW you are being mean and I believe mean posts are dealt with here. Also, craving social interaction is a basic instinct in many animals, including humans. Some species actually depend on it for survival, including us.

I agree that guilds need a revamp. I run my own guild, not that big but we recently got a teamspeak server and some stash tabs, about 25 of us total. However, I've been noticing that only a few of the people we recruit actually participate in social interactions. My thinking is that this may be partially because guilds don;t offer much more than social interaction, so those shyer or more focused on gaming drop out fast or don't join in all. If guilds could provide some fun new game effects, nothing loot based that would make it unfair, just something fun to do with (or maybe against other) guilds. Would let the more game focused guys start communicating and the shy ones to feel more at ease after playing together. Just my ideas

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FusionReactor wrote:

I understand how things work a whole lot more than you're giving me credit for.

No you don't.

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FusionReactor wrote:

And yes, there are a few exceptions, such as yourself.

As gamers grow older, "exceptions" like me become the rule. And it's fair to say PoE has a fairly old gamer base. Article about gamers being MORE social and employed than non-gamers:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/gamers-are-more-educated-more-social-study-20140606-zrzbe.html

"

FusionReactor wrote:

BTW you are being mean and I believe mean posts are dealt with here.

It's your choice to consider my post as mean. It's my choice to put forth an argument in response to what I think to be uneducated and overgeneralizing content.

"

FusionReactor wrote:

Also, craving social interaction is a basic instinct in many animals, including humans. Some species actually depend on it for survival, including us.

Completely irrelevant. I (and I dare say most other Path of Exile players) get plenty of social interaction in our day to day lives. And going back to my main point, who are you to tell anyone else if they have enough social interaction?

The forums are a great place to socialize. Were a friendly bunch ;)

@elitedesolator

I think your missing the point here. From what I understand the thread is about how guilds should be made more interesting and exciting so that us social gamers have something better to work with. Nevermind his, dare i say, rambling on about scientific social interaction behavior. I'm not bashing on those who like to play solo and neither is he, form what i can tell.

well then good I will exercise my opinion and consider you a troll and not respond to you anymore because I have no time for trolls. Bye

"In the last couple of months, a few dozen users have started posting extremely negative hateful comments in threads, completely derailing them and either encouraging other users to personally attack them or jump on the vitriol bandwagon. We found situations where the current forum rules were causing the people defending our game to get probated, rather than the user who was just trying to stir trouble."

"

HasuKishi wrote:

@elitedesolator

I think your missing the point here. From what I understand the thread is about how guilds should be made more interesting and exciting so that us social gamers have something better to work with. Nevermind his, dare i say, rambling on about scientific social interaction behavior. I'm not bashing on those who like to play solo and neither is he, form what i can tell.

thankyou